To confront the converging challenges of failing infrastructure, climate change, degraded water quality, and fewer undeveloped lands, many municipalities are establishing stormwater utilities (SWUs) to allocate a dedicated funding source to stormwater management (SWM) services. As a public service, creating a “fair” SWU by defining collective values that reflect community and municipal needs is crucial. However, the prevalent professional discourse surrounding SWUs often conflates “equity” with “economic efficiency” when they are two theoretically separate concepts, which obscure concerns raised by service beneficiaries. This paper unpacks ideas of fairness based on a systematic literature review that frames SWM financing in terms of economic efficiency and SWM services in terms of distributional, procedural, and structural equity. The distinction of which is important to set appropriate expectations between SWUs and beneficiaries.

中文翻译：

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消除雨水管理公平概念的歧义：经济效率和公平回顾

为了应对基础设施失效、气候变化、水质恶化和未开发土地减少等多重挑战，许多城市正在建立雨水公用事业公司 (SWU)，为雨水管理 (SWM) 服务分配专门的资金来源。作为一项公共服务，通过定义反映社区和市政需求的集体价值观来创建“公平”的 SWU 至关重要。然而，围绕SWU的流行专业话语经常将“公平”与“经济效率”混为一谈，因为它们在理论上是两个独立的概念，这掩盖了服务受益人提出的担忧。本文基于系统的文献综述阐述了公平的理念，该文献综述从经济效率角度构建了 SWM 融资，从分配、程序和结构公平角度构建了 SWM 服务。其区别对于在 SWU 和受益人之间设定适当的期望非常重要。